My first ever MD hunt - 1982

[Cessna Dude]

I put myself through college at the University of Texas working as a metal craftsman 1980-1983 and I happened to graduate in 1983, the centennial anniversary of the school. UT really got its act together and spruced up the campus prior to the big 100th anniversary celebration. This included new landscaping, tree trimming, new fencing, main gates to the campus, power washing the buildings, painting, and the total restoration of two limestone buildings, Hargis Hall and the "Custer" House, both from the 1880's on the east side of campus at and 19th Street and I-35. The Custer House so named after General Custer who used the building as his headquarters for the better part of a year back in either the 1880's or so.

Anyhow, these two buildings had been used for storage and vehicle parking since the 1950's and were completely surrounded by pavement and asphalt, not to mention a barbed-wire topped chainlink fence with a locked gate.

Toward the end of the restoration, the asphalt and pavement were all ripped up and hauled off, along with the fence being taken down prior to new topsoil being trucked in.

So, what's the deal with my working as a metal craftsman you ask? Well, my boss, and the owner of the metal shop I worked at had long talked about buying a real nice top-of-the-line metal detector. One day at lunch I noticed an old Treasure mag sitting on his desk and went through it. I happened to notice an ad for the Fisher M-Scope company touting its newest detector (supposedly the best one in existance at the time), the Fisher 1260X. I showed it to my boss, remarked how cool it would be to own one of the machines, and the rest was history.

The company I worked at, the Brassworks, specialized in making one-of-a-kind plaques, jewelry, belt-buckles, cufflinks, and basically all sorts of unique items from silver, nickel, gold, brass, etc. Anyhow, my boss and I came up with a wild idea that we would call the owner of Fisher and offer to trade out a number of highly polished brass Fisher M-Scope logo buckles for two 1260X's and all the trimmings. We ended up striking a deal and it was my responsibility to make the buckles, for which I'd receive one of the detectors.

I made and shipped the buckles (probably 50-75 or so) and about 10 days later our beautiful machines showed up! I was obviously itching to give my 1260X a test spin.

Now it was just about 2 days later that the fence came down around the restored Hargis Hall and Custer House (minus asphalt, paving and new topsoil).
The very next day, my best friend Tom and I took the 1260X and a garden trowel to the site.

Well the rest is history. We MD'd this historical hallowed ground for several hours and found nothing but keeper targets. Absolutely zero trash! We found probably two dozen Indian head cents and an equal number of buffalo nickels, silver dimes and two or three quarters if memory serves me right. In addition we unearthed an old thimble that would fit on a ladies pinky, the top of a silver cigarette case (that we fantasized belonged to General Custer), and a silver razor (the kind with the handle that unscrews so that the top would open like a drawbridge so you could change blades). We were in disbelief over the first couple of coins we found and were literally jumping up and down when the first coin we popped out was an Indian head cent. As the ground had been ripped up just a couple days prior, you could practically dig with your hands. It was just so easy.

After taking home and cleaning up our finds, we made plans to go out and hunt the place again as soon as my work schedule permitted, but to our dismay, the University was on a very tight schedule to get the buildings/grounds renovated by the school's 100th anniversary date and laid down the new topsoil and sod within the next one or two days. My next day at work I took the finds in to show my boss who was mighty impressed.

I put the finds into a green plastic box which I still have somewhere in my house today. If I can find them I'll post some photographs. Obviously as I'm just getting back into MD today, this was and is still my most successful hunt ever.

I drive by old Hargis Hall (now an admin. building) and the Custer House (now the University's Visitor Center often and remember my first hunt experience fondly. Sadly, we never got to hunt the place again. Imagine what we could have done had we actually known how to use the 1260X!

[Krakken]

As a graduate of UT, I would love the chance to detect that land!

Great story!

[lawdog1]

I love a great story. Just to stand on the same ground as Custer.....let alone dig relics and coins that may have passed his hands.

[milco]

That's a great story! It's exciting just to hear about it, hope you find the coins and can show us some pic's of those cool finds! Welcome back to the hobby!

[NightShifter]

Really cool story!

[KingTotsalot]

Loved reading your great success story! Bet you wish now you had one of those buckles you made too!

Yes, please do search for that box and get some images posted for us. Forum members love photos, and so does The King!

And welcome back to the hobby! What ever happened to your Fisher MD?

[Patton]

Great story. Would love to see some pics. Where is the Fisher now?

[Michaeltime]

Great story, I enjoyed it a lot. Too bad you didn't ask for more time to search the area. A friend once showed me a story in a treasure hunting magazine. It was about a guy who come out of a store and found a old coin and asked the people in charge to stop the reconstruction of the main street in Paw Paw Michigan. It was kind of cool because my wife at the time was from there and I never heard any thing about it. I always wanted a shot at hitting a area like that. I asked construction workers putting in new sewer systems in Greenville if they ever see any old coins in their work. They said no, guess they are too busy to notice. What a great chance to find old coins, when they rip up a chunk of sidewalk in a old part of town to just swing a detector over it and pop out some coins and go back working. Nobody to complain about the hole they dug, LOL.
M6 Mike

[Cessna Dude]

I still have the old Fisher 1260X; it only got used maybe a dozen more times after we hit paydirt at the Custer House. I'm in the process of having a new battery pack made for it (should be ready tomorrow as a matter of fact) so that it can get back in the game.

Asking for more time to hunt the place would have more than likely gotten us laughed at, a request to return what we had found, and thrown out the door. You don't get state construction projects on a crash and burn deadline stopped for any reason, least of all two kids with a metal detector.

I do still indeed have the finds somewhere in that green box somewhere in the house although I haven't seen it in many years. Could very well be packed in the attic, but when I do find it I'll be sure to get photos posted here on the site.

My focus is now to top that find with better ones from my new machine!